City of Derry Ladies travelled to Belfast Harlequins on Sunday without hooker Stacey Lea Kennedy, who was at an Ireland training session but they were bolstered by the inclusion of their 2 South African Internationals, Mandisa Williams & Fundi Plaatjie and came home with a bonus point win 27-12.
The early exchanges were evenly contested with Quins having the upper hand in the scrums.
After 4 minutes, following 3 scrums near the Quins line, No 8 Di Nixon was held up short of the line. From the ensuing scrum Di broke and fed the ball to Mandisa Williams in support. The South African Captain powered over for her first try of the match. With Susie Tinney’s conversion coming back off the post, Derry led 5-0.
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Midway through the half Harlequins moved the ball wide and scored a try in the corner which was superbly converted to put them 7-5 in front.
Almost from the restart Derry winger Ciara McGurk made a fine break and passed to Fundi Plaatjie. The scrum half showed her strength & speed to round the defence and score in the corner.
Derry looked to have increased their lead before half time when Di Nixon made a fine break to dive over the try-line but the referee disallowed the try saying that the Quins defence had got under the ball.
The Derry girls hadn’t played a game since November due to the weather and their first half performance was rusty as a result of this; however after the half time break they started to play some of the rugby they are capable of with Glenda Mellon featuring highly in the line-outs.
Early in the second half, playing against the wind, a planned move saw Fundi and the backrow combine to give Ciara the ball in space. The winger showed the defence a clean pair of heels to increase Derry’s lead to 15-7.
CLICK HERE for 35 photos from City Of Derry v Belfast Harlequins, you can view them as a slideshow or individually, pictures are free to download.
Derry had a second try disallowed when prop Naomi Seaman looked to have scored following a storming run before captain Di Nixon scored the fourth & bonus point try after a sprint from the 22 metre line handing off 3 would be tacklers.
CLICK HERE for another 140 of City of Derry in Action courtesy of Bernard Doherty, email bernarddoherty@hotmail.com
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Quins tried to mount attacks led by South African out half Zenay Jordaan but the Derry defence held firm. One of the attacks was stopped by some superb cover defence from Rachel Lennox & Ciara McGurk who stopped the Quins winger on the try line and prevented her grounding the ball.
Midway through the half another Quins attack was stopped at the halfway line and, from the maul, wing forward Mandisa stole the ball and showed the skill & footwork of a centre as she beat the defence from 50 metres to score her second try beneath the posts. The conversion was a formality for Rachel Lennox.
With the end of the game in sight, a lapse in concentration let Quin’s in for a consolation try to leave the final score 27-12.
This was a great result for the Derry team who had not played a competitive game in 7 weeks and the second half performance, against the wind, showed glimpses of what they are capable of.
Mandisa Williams showed why she has accumulated 26 caps for South Africa and captained her national side while scrum half Fundi Plaatjie was a constant threat.
The experience of both girls can only help their team mates.
